1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_conditions_for_temperature_and_pressure - in general there is no one and widely accepted definition of STP. 20 deg C is as good as 0 deg C or 25 deg C.
2. Dependence between specific gravity and temperature depends on properties of two liquids. Depending on the ratio of contractions you may have specific gravity being smaller or higher when moving with temperature in either direction. For example, pure water has a density of 0.99973 g/mL at 10 deg C and 0.988807 at 50 deg C.
what | temp (deg C) | density (g/mL) | specific gravity |
10 % NaOH | 10 | 1.1132 | 1.1135 |
| 50 | 1.0942 | 1.1074 |
mercury | 10 | 13.5708 | 13.5744 |
| 50 | 13.4729 | 13.6356 |
As you see for NaOH solution specific gravity grows with temperature, while for mercury it gets lower. That's not the case when you look for density - it gets lower with increasing temperature, as expected
3. In older books specific gravity is sometimes given with two indices, like d
204 (these should be one above the second, html limitiations doesn't allow that). This means specific gravity is ratio of of liquid density at 20 deg C compared to water density at 4 deg C (if water is at 4 deg C, it means the result is in g/mL, but you may see also other numbers, like d
1520). In a way it also means it is not a specific gravity, as SG calls for identical temperature
As far as I remember specific gravity was introduced as an easy way of making measurements of mineral density in field. It is pretty easy to submerge piece of rock in water to find out how its density relates to that of water. You can easily make sure they have both the same temperature, but it is pretty hard to make it 20 deg C (or any other standard). That's why it was defined this way. As it often happens, simple definition that works in field, becomes a problem when nitpicking specialists in white coats and well equipped labs start to look at fine details